Saturday, 2 June 2012

Introducing Genius Loci

Genius Loci is a
fantasy setting where spirits walk among the people, legendary
creatures cause the rise or fall of empires, and varied races share
unique cultures. The mystical landscapes of Kitas, as the world is
known by those who dwell there, are soaked with magic and teeming
with riddles and legends.

This blog documents
my development of Genius Loci as I explore the various in-world
aspects of this “riddlesome fairy-tale” through drawings,
sketches, and short articles about, well, everything! While much of
my art appears on my other website, jsl-art.de, many smaller works
will be exclusive to this blog.

How is Genius Loci special?

The Genius Loci
setting works outside of stereotypes often found in fantasy settings.
It is an attempt to create a fantastical, believable world with a
story to it. Two worlds, actually, because Genius Loci is not just
one place: the real, material world of Kitas is accompanied by the
mysterious Area, a dreamlike parallel world that can - and should -
only be entered with special precautions. While not entirely without
substance, it is a mindrealm where things are not as they seem.

The setting
constitutes that race and culture are independent of each other.
Members of the same race do not automatically agree, and there is no
such thing as a dwarven country, or elven language. In other words,
the idea of multi-ethnic cultures is taken to a whole new level on
Kitas.

A fantastic world

Genius Loci is a
latin term that means "spirit of place". Kitas is filled
with all manner of spirits, making it a very magical world. Nature
spirits are caring, curious, and self-sufficient; the spirits of the
dead are grief-stricken, violent, and vengeful; spirits known as
“echoes” are leftover images of people who may not even be dead;
and the most feared of all, the titular spirits of place - the genius
loci - themselves, are incredibly powerful entities that can come
into existence anywhere, seemingly at random, pushing its destructive
will on everything and everyone within its domain.

In addition to the
setting’s numerous spirits, the very continents of Kitas are
infused with magic: each is dominated by the elements of either
water, earth and air, fire, or life, strongly influencing their
landscapes.

Names and translations

I'm German, and the
original names of terms within Genius Loci are German as well. If a
name can be translated, it usually will be, though I will mention the
original name as well. However, because of the nature of language,
sometimes the feel of a name is changed, as within the famous rhyme
of the Four, so it may be that I cannot find any suitable
translation. In these cases, I will share the original German, and
leave the translation to you.

--

This entry has been edited by Kody "Corvell" Cowell, in December 2017.

1 comment:

Hey Ranarh! I was wondering, would you be interested in having a line-editor for your blog? I would love to crawl through your posts and polish up the grammar and such of them all (not that it's bad!). I would do it for free -- I would enjoy the practice, and I imagine it would be of help to you. I have edited your short stories before, but this would be a much simpler form of editing. I won't change any of the information or suggest significant changes, I'd only polish up existing sentences, with a focus on grammar and readability.

About Me

Ranarh is the artistic alias of sci-fi/fantasy painter, illustrator, and concept artist Jennifer S. Lange. She enjoys spaghetti, lightsabers, and jellyfish. Jennifer lives in northern Germany with her fiancè and a blackbird.